The Elements of Legal Style

Bryan A. Garner is a best-selling legal author with more than a dozen titles to his credit, including A Dictionary of Modern Legal Usage, The Winning Brief, A Dictionary of Modern American Usage, and Legal Writing in Plain English. He is also the editor in chief of Black's Law Dictionary in all its current editions.

"Publishers each year spew out writing books for law students by the dozen. Forget them. This is the best. We had not believed that this classic work could be substantially improved. The inimitable Mr. Garner has proven this belief wrong, and happily so."-ABA Appellate Practice Journal"Garner has given to the legal profession [an] extraordinary book....Invaluable."--South Dakota Law Review"Bryan Garner...is rapidly becoming--if he's not there already--America's foremost authority on language and the law."--Barrister"An expanded and more relaxed edition of his 1991 sourcebook."--William Safire, New York Times Magazine"Publishers each year spew out writing books for law students by the dozen. Forget them. This is the best. We had not believed that this classic work could be substantially improved. The inimitable Mr. Garner has proven this belief wrong, and happily so."-ABA Appellate Practice Journal"Provides expanded coverage of appropriate legal prose and common errors in legal language....This book speaks not only to lawyers but to other writers as well, urging them to use style to develop persuasion, description, or analysis. Highly Recommended."--Library Journal"Belongs on every lawyer's shelf of essential writing aids."--New York Law Journal "Well worth the price."--Appellate Practice Journal "A vital resource for anyone who wants to write clear and powerful legal prose."--Detroit Legal News "A hard-hitting book....Garner offers such articulate and well-reasoned advise that I feel guilty for all the lawyer jokes I've told over the years."--Ft. Worth Star-Telegram"If lawyers all followed the advice that Garner gives here, the rest of us would probably be able to understand legal documents written on our behalf. Besides being a good all-purpose primer on style and usage (it recalls but is much more comprehensive than Strunk and White's Elements of Style), this book discusses legalisms from absolve to withal."--Copy Editor"An excellent reference manual."--Bimonthly Review of Law BooksPraise for the first edition:"Garner has given to the legal profession [an] extraordinary book....Invaluable."--South Dakota Law Review"Bryan Garner...is rapidly becoming--if he's not there already--America's foremost authority on language and the law."--Barrister